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SANDMAN Progress Report and The End of CONSTANTINE

Joseph Gordon-Levitt was at Spike’s “Guys’ Choice
Awards” on June 6th and spoke with a reporter from Mtv about
the Sandman movie.  Gordon-Levitt is hard at work on the adaptation
of Neil Gaiman’s Vertigo series as writer and producer and potentially director
as well.
Levitt explained that the progress is slow because of the
care they’re putting into the adaptation. 
He tells the reporter: “It’s
a really complicated adaptation because those comics, they’re brilliant. But
they’re not written as a whole. It’s not like ‘Watchmen,’ which is a graphic
novel that has a beginning, middle, and end. ‘Sandman’ was written over the
course of whatever — I forget exactly, six or seven years. One at a time. One
little 20-page issue at a time. And to try to take that and make it into
something that’s a feature film — a movie that has a beginning, middle, and end
— is complicated.
Gordon-Levitt also says he is working with input from Gaiman
as well, which has given Levitt a philosophy to work with; specifically, don’t
expect Morpheus to get into any punch-ups. 
And it was actually one of
the things that Neil Gaiman said to me; he said ‘Don’t have any punching.’
Because he never does. If you read the comics, Morpheus doesn’t punch anybody.
That’s not what he does.
Levitt still promises a satisfying experience for
movie-goers and he’s taking his time in order to deliver just that.
As for the bad news…
Daniel Cerone, the Executive Producer of Constantine promised back in March that
he would keep fans up to date on the future of the series.  Unfortunately, the news he has given fans is
not good.  Cerone and Warner TV shopped
the series around for a new home for most of the last two months to no avail
and he announced the official cancellation of the series on Sunday.
The following was his statement on Twitter:

“I promised I’d share news when I had it — sadly, that news
is not good. The cast and writers of Constantine are being released from their
contracts. The studio tried to find a new home for the show, for which we’re
forever grateful, but those efforts didn’t pan out. I’m sorry, I wasn’t
provided any information on the attempts to sell the show elsewhere. All I can
report is that the show is over.

“Many ingredients went into this TV series. From the dedicated cast that
breathed these characters to life, led by Matt Ryan as the comic-made-flesh
embodiment of John Constantine, to the exceptionality talented crew that put
unreal images on screen, to the original Hellblazer writers and artists who
gifted us a universe.

“As a general principle, writers don’t choose a writing career to achieve
stardom. Whatever demons or insecurities drove them to find freedom of
expression through written words generally keeps writers comfortably obscure
behind their words. Nor do people choose writing as a means to financial
freedom. I’d venture to guess that most who set out to write professionally
never receive a paycheck for their hopeful scribbles or key strokes.

“In fact, nobody I know ever chose a writing career — it chose them. You
write because that’s what you do. Like breathing, it just happens and you have
to do it and you just hope that someday somebody out there notices what you’re
trying to say.

“If that’s the dream of writers, than the writers of Constantine lived the
dream, because we’re leaving behind wild and passionate fans who believe in and
were moved by what we tried to do. To leave such a significant, dedicated and
active fan base on the table — that’s the real sadness. You all deserve many
years of the series we set out to make, and we’re disappointed that we couldn’t
deliver that to you. The good news is that Constantine will live on for years
in many more forms. But our time as caretakers has ended.

“Thank you for letting us in.

“Daniel Cerone”

Sources – Mtv for the Sandman story and Twitter for the Constantine story.

The Sandman, written
and produced by Joseph Gordon-Levitt, is in Development.

Just another guy on the internet.